Early-morning dips, Christian Eriksen memories, emergency Kieran Tierney solution - Scotland and Denmark keep it all in perspective

Scotland's players prepare for Wednesday night's match against Denmark in Copenhagen.

This is literally the case in terms of view. But it also stands as a reminder that there are so many more important things than a football match, even one where World Cup qualification is at stake.

The problems are piling up for both Denmark and Scotland ahead of tonight’s Group D fixture as the hosts return to their home ground for the first time since their Euro 2020 exploits. Nevertheless, neither manager seemed particularly interested in eliciting any sympathy yesterday.

The ever-present shadow of Covid continues to demand adjustments in all walks of life, including football.

Memories are also fresh from seeing Christian Eriksen collapse on the turf at the Parken stadium during his side’s opening game against Finland.

The tournament’s defining moment was the sight of a ring of Denmark players forming a protective barrier around their stricken teammate as medics performed heroics to re-start his heart. The playmaker is continuing his recovery and will watch his side seek to overcome Scotland at a sold-out stadium from afar. It promises to be an emotional occasion.

The Danish coaching staff will have been more in need of a bracing early-morning swim than ever yesterday as they seek to clear their heads.

It is a tradition stretching back several years for them to take a dip each morning in the sea at Elsinore, the town where the Danes’ training camp is based.

“Typically, 7.30 or 8am depending on the programme,” Morten Wieghorst, the Denmark assistant manager, revealed earlier this week. The former Dundee and Celtic midfielder provided a clue to where he spent the majority of his playing career by describing it as a “wee bit cold”.

Like Scotland, Denmark have a mounting list of absentees due to injury and illness, including Barcelona's Martin Braithwaite and Nice's Kasper Dolberg – two of their main attacking threats. But they can take comfort from already having nine points in the bank.

This is not how Steve Clarke wanted to go into a match against a team ranked 11 in the world and who so recently reached the last four of a major championships, where they were controversially eliminated by England.

The Scotland manager might well have considered taking a long walk off a short pier at Copenhagen’s picturesque waterfront area on his arrival in the Danish capital last night.

Scotland’s flight landed in the early evening and the plane was a lot lighter than planned. Had he dared to glance behind him, Clarke would have spotted only 15 outfield players. Another, Jack Hendry, joined the party in Denmark from Belgium, where he is in the process of negotiating a move to Bruges. That makes it 19 players in total, three of them goalkeepers, for what is accepted will be the biggest challenge of Scotland’s World Cup qualifying campaign. Clarke didn’t recently sign an extension to his contract for this.

Not that he was intent on pushing a “woe is me” narrative yesterday as he discussed what he has described as “the most disruptive” countdown to a game he has known as Scotland manager and revealed further absentees. Stephen O’Donnell was omitted from the travelling party at the 11th hour after it emerged that Denmark’s Covid regulations meant he would not be permitted entry.

Kevin Nisbet, meanwhile, is also out though with “a knock”. If the Hibs striker fails to recover sufficiently for the next two matches, against Moldova and Austria, then Clarke will be prompted to bring in another striker. He has so far resisted making any call-ups despite the rapidly shrinking numbers.

“I don’t want to make it a big drama about Covid issues and losing players for a game because people are losing their lives over this,” he said. “My daughter has been suffering from long Covid since January, so I understand that people are suffering with this disease.

“Let’s not go too far down the road of ‘poor us,’” he added. “It’s a football match we are playing and we will have a really good competitive team on the pitch and we look forward to a fantastic game against the number one seeds in the group.”

Clarke was right to accentuate the positives. “We had a fantastic reception from the country because we managed to qualify for a major tournament and everyone knows what it means to the country to qualify now,” he said.

“And we want to back that up, doing it again and do it again as soon as possible, not wait another 20 years for it.”

On the subject of right back, where Scotland now seem so short, he sought to provide some cheer.

“I’ve got Ryan Fraser. He’s played right wing-back many times for his club, mainly Bournemouth. More there than Newcastle and he’s played there for me before against the Faroes Islands. He scored a back-post header, so I have got options.

“Kieran Tierney has played on the right before. That would be a more emergency measure, so I’ve got some options. Whether I go with the five or the four, I’ll probably sleep on that one."

The circumstances almost invite a heroic back to the wall performance on a night when getting anything at all from the match will be treated as a bonus.

“That would be nice," said Clarke. "Historically, that’s always been us. We’ve always sort of been the ones where you like to be the underdog, have things go against you and then stand up and show everyone what we can do. Hopefully, this group of players can do that for us in Copenhagen.”

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